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Sign in with FacebookLatest Alajuela hotel reviews
Pro
Close to everything in the Central Valley
Con
Can't think of any
In a nutshell
Great base for exploring the central valley
theo1006 Says: Parque Nacional Volcán Poás is the easiest to visit and therefore the most popular. From Alajuela one or more tourist buses daily go the 37 km winding mountain road to the park, fare CRC 2100 both ways. They stop at a souvenir stall on the way, still there is ample time to...
theo1006 Says: The Else Kinzler Botanical Garden belongs to an enterprise specializing in decorative plants from all over the world, Innovaplant de Costa Rica S.A. The German owner established the garden in 1998 and named it after his mother. So you enter the garden via the enterprise...
theo1006 Says: Another day we took the bus from Alajuela to Sarchí, fare CRC 735. The small town is famous for its handicraft, especially oxcarts, lifesize and miniature. The art of oxcart making in Sarchí is recognized by Unesco as an instance of Intangible Heritage of Humanity, together...
theo1006 Says: At the end of a hot day it is always nice to find a waterfall. This one we found on our way back from Grecia to Alajuela, at Carrillos which is about half way between the two.There is a parking a couple of km uphill from the main road at Carrillos. Here we paid the entrance...
theo1006 Says: For our first day trip from Alajuela we went by bus to Grecia. On the way there we had seen the billboard at the roadside, so we dropped off there on our way back.'World of Snakes' is a small zoo featuring mainly snakes, but also crocodiles, amphibians and lizards. But their...
3 Reviews and 281 Opinions We stayed at the Buena Vista for one night in November, 2005. It was our very first trip to Coasta...
2 Reviews and 133 Opinions Just returned from a holiday at this hotel - four adults and one child. The hotel is kept very clean...
BEETLE_VERTE Says: Chain of restaurants offering a wide variety of roasted chicken options and local plates. On the menu, you could find patacones, tortillas de mais, elotes, frijolitos molidos, yuca frita, ... Clean, colorful, thoughful and inviting concept, it's a good way of having an...
La Mansarda Bar & Restaurant: Best Fish I Had in Costa Rica
Joe_from_Jersey Says: The second floor resturant is located near the catheral and park in Alajuela and has a small open balcony. It has a nice laid back atmosphere with good food and service. Nothing fancy, but it has a very local feel. There is also a guitar player there in the evenings. A nice...
theo1006 Says: Car rental in Costa Rica is not cheap. We rented is small 4WD jeep from A-1 Rent A Car for two weeks and it cost us USD 648 (day rate USD 54. two days free) and drove it as far as Bijagua, Jacó and Limón.A-1 is the only car rental in downtown Alajuela and their prices are...
Tricolor car rental - can't be beat!
sean420 Says: If you are renting a car for your Costa Rican vacation rent from Tricolor rental!At our hotel while we were eating breakfast, Christopher from Tricolor rental arrived with our 4x4. He told us that he was in no hurry and for us to finish our breakfast while he started on the...
private residence: Locally produced wine
theo1006 Says: We like a single glass of wine as a night cap. So when we saw the announcement 'wine for sale' on a private house, we rang the bell. Yes, they sell wine from Garita for CRC 2,500 a bottle. If you happen to pass through Garita town on road #3, you can by the same wine on the...
Green Turtle Outlet: Souvenir Depot
BEETLE_VERTE Says: It's the last day of your trip and you want to pack up on gifts for familly and friends (a little for yourself too), head for the turtle Depot in Alajuela. A big big big store filled to the top with gifts for everyone: hats, t-shirts, jewels, paintings, sculptures, mirrors,...
Helpfulness
Nothing noteable here. there is a lovely square in the centre of town and i think it is the only thing worth seeing. I missed being there when the mercado (market) was open. There are couple of supermarkets (pali) south and west (a few blocks) to the centre of town. The people here are more afluent than other cities in the country. You will see that they have pets and the women will have shorter hair styles. I felt fairly safe walking around.
Updated Mar 18, 2005
janke_M Says: DO NOT STAY HERE!!!!! I had a reservation and a airport pick up- they did not show up to pick me up and after a 14 dollar cab ride they tell me they have given my room away!!@! unaccepatable. DO NOT STAY HERE you porobaly wont have a room when you get there
BEETLE_VERTE Says: We knew about it and still got caught. You read about this kind of scam and you are sure you would never got caught, that this plan is so stupid it would never work.Well, it does. You're in vacation, you're elax, you're happy to meet friendly local peoples... And then a...
BEETLE_VERTE Says: This is the name of a Tour organiser in the san Jose/Alajuela area. They'll sell you local tours like Grecia, Sarchi, Poas or Irazu volcano, or longer expeditions in Tortuguero, Arenal volcano or tarcoles river. We found them in our hotel, almost as a "no name" tour. We...
La Paz Waterfall Gardens - Crowded and fake
BEETLE_VERTE Says: We wanted to make the best of our last day in Costa Rica, but had to stay in the Poas Volcano / Alajuela area. A very friendly clerc at our hotel recommended that we go to La Paz: waterfalls, hummingbird garden, butterfly garden, orchids house... Yes, it was all that, but it...
Luggage and bags: The suitcase with the built-in wheels that fits in the airplane luggage rack is the only way for me... and the rest of my family too! It's difficult to think why anyone would carry more, especially when on vacation. Over the years I have managed to complete the "ready-to-go" suitcase, complete with a spare set of everything packed and just waiting for a month in Asia, a weekend camping or an overnight trip on business.
Clothing/Shoes/Weather Gear: When going by air, change into clothing suitable for your destination and leave the useless clothes behind. Then bring a second pair of everything in your suitcase. Shoes (for business) or sneakers for vacation plus sandals for footwear. Extra underwear and socks (except you can wash them easily in the hotel sink and dry in the shower), shorts that you can swim in. Polyester shirt (dries quickly), rolled up sweater,
Toiletries and Medical Supplies: Shaving kit - old pair of eye glasses. Most things you can easily purchase on vacation so relax!!
Photo Equipment: Digital camera - maybe an extra memory card and batteries. Burn them to a DVD at an internet cafe if you are afraid of losing your camera.
Camping/Beach/Outdoor Gear: Towel that rolls up tight and that you do not care if you lose it. Piece of rope with plastic clothes pins for drying clothes indoors or out.
Written Aug 4, 2008
theo1006 Says: When we returned home to Alajuela on March18th, we found traffic blocked. This was the day of the yearly horse parade (cabalgata). So here are a few pics of this event. It seems everyone in the Central Valley who owns a horse comes to Alajuela to show it off.
sean420 Says: This zoo is a rescue center for injured and confiscated wildlife. The fantastic bird collection (the largest in Central America) includes dozens of toucans, cranes, curassows, and parrots. Zoo Ave is one of only two zoos in the world to display the quetzal. Macaws fly free....
Favorite thing: While we stayed at the 1915 Hotel in Alajuela we brought our laundry to a little shop a few blocks from the hotel. The shopkeeper, being a collector, had a small display of banknotes on his counter.
Fondest memory: As we admired these, we started talking and gave him some notes from Indonesia, Suriname and Trinidad Tobago, that we happened still to have with us. He was so happy with these that he gave us in return a five colones bill of 1990, which he said was “the most beautiful banknote” in the world.
We cannot confirm this, as we have not seen all the banknotes in the world. But this Cinco Colones note certainly is a fine one. One face bears a portrait of Rafael Yglesias Castro, who served as president of Costa Rica from 1894 to 1902, and a pair of Costa Rica's national flowers - the orchid Guaria Morada. The other face shows a print of the famous allegorical mural in the National Theater. This “Allegory of Coffee and Bananas” was painted by the Italian J. Villa (or Aleandro Villa?) and depicts the loading of coffee and bananas in the port of Limón. It is a interesting painting although mr Villa did not quite know his subject, because coffee does not grow at sea level and the man in the centre has an awkward way of carrying a bunch of bananas.
We had not figured out all this at the time, otherwise we would have gone to see the interior of the Theatre, which we now only saw in passing by.
Updated Aug 8, 2012
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